Night Lights | By David Johnson - January 15, 2025
Long before the rise of the black-pride movement in the 1960s, Ellington was writing music that celebrated African-American culture, personalities, and history.
This hour on Harmonia, we’ll dig into the music collection of “Dr. Rainbeau,” an early music lover in the nineteenth century who collected manuscripts and books of old music. Tune in to learn the true identity and the unusual musical tastes of this quirky antiquarian!
The songs of Irving Berlin were featured in some of Hollywood’s first “Talkies,” and this week, we’ll explore the songwriter’s work in cinema, including songs like “Blue Skies,” “Puttin’ On The Ritz,” and “Cheek To Cheek.”
Stephanie Solomon thinks about gender a lot – in her work life and her personal life. We talk about how much harder it is to change old patterns than we once thought.
In the late 1970s Columbia Records’ jazz roster included artists such as Dexter Gordon, Woody Shaw, Weather Report, Freddie Hubbard, Bobby Hutcherson, Stan Getz and others, led by a label executive with a deep passion for their music. The program includes commentary from jazz producer Michael Cuscuna.
This hour, we continue our look at the French family of music publishers who were named printers to the king…over a span of 200 years! We’ll hear music published by later generations of the Ballard printing empire around the time of Louis XIV.
On this episode, it’s a roll call of first names in the Great American Songbook, including “Nancy With The Laughing Face,” “Happiness Is A Thing Called Joe,” and “Johnny One Note.”
Jazz artists and educators Natalie Boeyink, Rachel Caswell, and Lissa May discuss the life and legacy of the longtime Bloomington High School North band director.
This hour, we’ll hear music from 16th century France published by cousins who were the first music printers to receive a royal privilege. Plus, on our featured recording—lute music performed by Richard Kolb.
For our Afterglow holiday show this year, we’ll be featuring some classic Christmas radio broadcasts, performed by favorite jazz singers like Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald and more.
Night Lights | By David Johnson - December 23, 2024
Joe Bourne, the founding host of WFIU's long-running weekday afternoon jazz program Just You And Me, came back to help the show turn 40 with a live-audience broadcast.
It’s the holiday season, and we’re keeping things light and snappy this week as we dance along to some swinging holiday tunes, sung by Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald and more!
